StrangeSox

Olympic medal ceremonies aren't closed-door events where only athletes and their families are in attendance and non-winners aren't invited. Plus they sort of do have big collective group honorings in the openings and closing ceremonies. And in that case, you'd still have the individual medal ceremonies, they'd just all be at once which would make for boring TV. As far as I'm aware, these students were still being individually recognized for their accomplishments. But we should really stop equating literally the best athlete in the world at a particular sport with middle school honors, lol. Pumping up some middle school honors to this sort of level is right along the same lines of "everyone's a winner!"

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 22, 2014 -> 04:40 PM) The motivation is THE problem here. How many times do I have to repeat that? Enough times until you can link "exact same awards to the exact same people" with "everyone is equal! awards for everybody!"

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 22, 2014 -> 04:36 PM) As I said before, it's not just taking it away, it's the reason behind it. It's a bulls*** mentality that kids all need to be given things equally, despite what they've done to earn it. But the problem is that you've completely fabricated that mentality here. Until you can somehow reconcile "still giving the exact same kids the exact same honors and awards" with "everyone gets an honor/award!", this point makes zero sense. Only those who worked hard to earn the honors will get the honors. The honors requirements weren't loosened to allow more people in.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 22, 2014 -> 04:31 PM) It's just a parenting style/philosophy that you can see in the news and that i've already experienced personally in the 2 years with my son, that jive pretty closely with political ideology. Maybe not perfectly, but close. And yes, there are horrible parents/parenting styles on both sides. And I disagree with the bolded. Pat the s*** out of everyone's back if you're doing something right. It makes zero sense to devalue someone's achievement just to make someone else feel better about themselves. Maybe some of the kids getting those honors were one of the dumb/apathetic/lazy kids and they worked to get those honors. "And now you've taken it away from them. What are they supposed to think now? Yeah, trying was fun but it didn't get me anywhere. What's the point?" That's a pretty dumb policy. Nobody took away the honor roll or expanded it to include more people. Only the ceremony was changed to a larger one. Now they get to be awarded in front of the entire student body for their achievements. Why is this supposed to be so horrible? Set aside whatever possibly dumb motivations the administration may have had and just look at the actual results. eta: as for the second bolded part, trying got them to learn more things, be more successful and get on the honor roll. If the only thing that drives you is a desire to belong to exclusive clubs and feel and flaunt that you're superior to others, then you're probably kind of a douche.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 22, 2014 -> 04:11 PM) Because it's in the same vein as not keeping score in kids soccer games or telling them that they won or lost because you don't want losing kids to feel bad about it. I, and others, think it's important to not only reward people who have achieved/won, but also to allow people to lose so they know what it's about. If you keep treating kids equally they don't learn anything. I'm still missing the part where the honors students wouldn't have been getting honors awards. Honors kids still get rewarded, non-honors kids still don't. It's entirely about whether its at a separate event just for honors kids or if its part of a larger awards ceremony where people are awarded for other achievements as well. And honestly, if people really get this snobby and stuck up about the event needing to be 'exclusive' to mean something, well, then it's probably good that they end it. Not because the non-honorees will feel excluded, but because the honorees will be douches about it. Does your 2 year old need some sort of sticker-kids-only exclusive club at the end of the day in order for the reward to mean something?

I dunno. Maybe? I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the separate event, but I really don't understand people being so upset about it, either.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 22, 2014 -> 03:41 PM) So not any part of you took honors courses or did well in school or went to college, etc in order to have someone look at you and be proud and/or impressed with your achievements? Yes, obviously we also went to learn. We went to get a degree and start a career. But for me, a portion of it was how people would see me/think of me going forward. In junior high and high school, when you have little else, those were motivating factors for me and many others. It was special to be a group of 25-30 kids that were in all AP classes and got recognized for it. Just like getting extra tassles at graduation or fighting over class rank. I was lazy as hell in school, but I was motivated enough to keep getting A's and B's. I don't know why exactly, but it wasn't for honor roll or some special awards night that I honestly probably wouldn't have gone to anyway. I was in the "gifted" program in junior high because it got me out of class occasionally to go do some cool stuff. I took AP classes because those were the next ones on the list, not to feel part of a special group. I didn't give one s*** about class rank and IIRC didn't finish in the top 10%. I was proud to make the dean's list by my senior year of college, but that was entirely a personal accomplishment in light of getting my ass kicked the first two years due to my previously mentioned laziness in HS. On the other hand, I'm also someone who tries to avoid the spotlight so I'm sure that colors my view of some exclusive ceremonies or awards.

But nobody took any of the actual honors away, just the separate honors night. Couldn't you turn that around and say that by honoring these students in front of the entire student body, you're giving those who didn't make the honor roll something to aspire to?

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ May 22, 2014 -> 03:22 PM) Well, enough people thought there was a difference between being honored in front of a larger group than a smaller group that they complained about the long-standing tradition. Also, kids aren't really mature enough to learn for the sake of learning. Awards provide motivation to kids to do things that they won't appreciate until later in life. I couldn't get enough math and science in high school, but couldn't give a flying f*** about writing or literature, except that college admission and the potential for class honors and scholarships depended on it. Now I'm very glad that I gave effort in those classes just for the sake of the knowledge. I agree about the mental and emotional maturity of kids that age, but jenks started asking about "What's the point of a college degree?" If the only reason you got a college degree was so that you got some adulation and praise, you probably had the wrong motivations. Even you pointed out some much more important things than working hard just so you can be honored at an exclusive event, though. Getting into college and getting scholarships to reduce the enormous debt burden college usually comes with these days is a lot more important than some exclusivity.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 22, 2014 -> 02:49 PM) What, why? Should we get rid of college degrees too? Just let people go to class for 4 years and learn stuff? I didn't go to college because I wanted to be "honored separately." That seems pretty narcissistic, but then again we're talking about junior high kids and they're all pretty much self-centered at that age. And as far as I remember, both regular and honors degree recipients were honored at the same commencement. I guess I really don't understand the outrage or the "liberal p**** fantasy" here. Maybe some people are really, really into the whole exclusive club thing to the point that getting the exact same honor in front of a larger group is somehow worse than getting that honor in front of a smaller group? eta: also what is the problem with learning for the sake of learning or personal enrichment? Is learning and individual success only worth it if you're given a ribbon or a certificate to show how smart you are? Talk about coddling, special-snowflake bulls***.

really fell apart

yeah, day after, not live

You're looking at adding A/C, but what's the current heating situation like? Is there already forced-air ductwork throughout the house, or is baseboard/radiator heating or something along those lines? You could always go with one of the single-room ductless units if you really only need to cool a few additional rooms. They're not cheap themselves, but you could probably get 4-5 installed for the price of one new central A/C installation. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ramsond-9-500-B...c1vZc4m1Z2bctxo QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 21, 2014 -> 12:05 PM) You'll want to be careful about buying a whole new unit. Make sure it's going to be rated to cover the existing square footage and also the additional square footage. Those units aren't cheap (several thousand +), so you don't want to have to upgrade later. You always could, but I'd imagine it's much cheaper to buy a single unit rated for what you want versus two. Given that he's talking about 10 years out before the addition, it might be more economical to size the unit for the house as it is now and then add a second unit with the addition. You could even have them as completely independent systems then with different temperature profiles throughout the day (e.g. downstairs is cooler during the day because that's where you spend your time, but upstairs is cooler at night for sleeping). I don't actually know whether it'd be cheaper in the long run, but you do loose efficiency if you oversize your units so you'll be paying more for the 10 years prior to adding the addition.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 20, 2014 -> 03:50 PM) Yes, I believe this is a SSS thing. From the side during his motion, with his arms out to his side, he looks like a condor. http://www.southsidesox.com/2014/2/19/5427...condor-nickname Hey, I've seen that condor!

Lol people still taking Sarah Palin seriously. Kudos to her for cashing in on the wingnut welfare, I guess.

local school administrators can often make dumb decisions

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 18, 2014 -> 06:12 PM) The problem is that is some NBA style officiating. They blew the initial call, so they did something they aren't allowed to do to balance it out. It is like in the NBA when they don't call the foul on a player going to the basket, but then when the offensive player knocks the ball out of bounds, they just let the offensive team keep the ball to balance it out. In this case it wasn't some random, arbitrary "make-up" call later on like in the example above but getting together right away and making the correct call right after the play. I don't know the rules well enough to know if they were or weren't technically allowed to conference the way they did, but in the end the correct call got made. It's really hard to see that as a bad thing.

You sound scared.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 13, 2014 -> 04:31 PM) Could it be from just walking on an incline constantly? I'm sure that's the root cause, but your shoes can definitely make it worse. She had no problem for about 4 months using her Merrells, a few weeks with the Nikes and her toe's all messed up.

my last post was wrong, this covers how the terms have been used in much better detail: http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-ch...bal-warming.htm basically, they've both been used equally in the scientific literature forever, but it wasn't until Republicans deliberately started referring to it as "climate change" exclusively that usage started diverging in common usage.

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 13, 2014 -> 09:37 AM) Nikes are very narrow shoes. They tend to do this to people who don't have narrow enough feet. Try New Balance or saucony if she continues to have issues. They have wider toe boxes. It's still hurting her, but now it's almost moving back into her arch instead of being really painful whenever there's toe flexion. She switched back to her Merrell hiking shoes when it first started hurting. For the most part, she's walking on the treadmill at 3-3.5 mph but 10-15 incline with a 10-20 pound pack on her back versus running or jogging. It's been getting a little better, but it's not exactly easy to completely rest your foot.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 13, 2014 -> 12:16 PM) Well first of all, it will take a couple hundred years to reach full impact of this particular event. That doesn't mean the effect is zero for 200 years - that means it will go up, all else equal, by that amount, over that time period. Not sure what the curve looks like, but vaguely, if it is 4 feet in rise in 200 years, it is 2 feet in 100, which is plenty to cause some areas major problems. You are also dismissing the fact that there are events like this happening in other places too, and they have an additive effect. If you want to pretend this is some Al Gore conspiracy, go ahead, but the science is pretty clear. This is happening. And I guess for me, I don't like the idea that we're doing significant harm now AND for the future. I'd rather not make things worse for my grandkids in a hundred years. Now, if you want to discuss what to do about it an how, there are all kinds of great discussions to be had there. It's anticipated to start slowly and accelerate towards the end, not be a linear rise. So people 100 years from now can say the same "why should we care!? it's probably not even real!" crap they are now, but people 120 years from now will have catastrophic sea level rise on their hands.

Also good points by tex regarding what tenure actually means and how it gives teachers due process instead of the arbitrary hiring and firing most of us face.

My wife is a teacher. Her principles policy is that parents are contacted (email is okay) on a weekly basis for any kid with a d or f. She can and has given out those grades for a quarter.

IIRC Kansas is currently run by Republican supermajorities